The need for a ready supply of fluids to combat dehydration during strenuous activity is well known. Commonly, people who are working or recreating take periodic refreshment breaks to hydrate themselves. However, such refreshment breaks might not occur frequently enough to properly hydrate a person performing strenuous activities. In addition, it is generally accepted that a person's physical and mental health may be maintained by adequate hydration while working or recreating. Hydration systems for hydrating persons during work and recreation activities have grown in popularity, including participation in non-team oriented sports such as biking, hiking and running, where refreshment breaks may be more difficult to accomplish.
Maintaining proper hydration levels can require the regular ingestion of fluids. The medical and performance enhancing need for regular drinking requires ready access to fluids. Several portable devices have been developed to meet this need. Some devices include containers of rigid or of semi-rigid construction. These devices, such as aluminum canteens and plastic water bottles, are reasonably light, durable and inexpensive. However, they are often awkwardly mounted to a waist belt or in a pocket of a back pack, and thus typically require a user's hand for manipulating the container to access the liquid.
More recently, portable hydration devices have been developed that include a flexible, bag-like (e.g. soft-sided) reservoir to store fluids. This type of reservoir has the benefit of being more comfortable when carried next to the body, and is often configured to be worn on a user's back with a short drinking tube and mouth piece to provide hands-free access to the fluid.
While some improvements have been made in such bag-like systems, the reservoirs of these systems are often expensive and difficult to clean due to their construction. Flexible reservoirs are typically constructed from two sheets of high grade plastic that are bonded or welded together along their edges to create a bag with water-tight seams. These bags then have components attached to them for filling and dispensing fluids, such as an input port with a large threaded neck to fill the bag which ice and water, and an output spout with a bonded or welded drink tube. The resulting reservoir is typically a water-tight, though expensive, assemblage of fused or bonded parts. These assemblages usually have many internal seams and corners that are difficult to clean with conventional methods.
Another feature of the known bag-like devices is the mouthpiece. It is desirable that the mouthpiece acts like a valve configured to open and close at the user's command to provide access to the fluid in the reservoir. For convenience, it is also desirable that the valve operates under the action of a user's mouth. These mouthpieces that include mouth-actuated valves are sometimes referred to as “bite valves.” Many designs have been put forward to provide such a mouthpiece. Such mouthpieces typically include multiple parts which move relative to one another, and unitary mouthpieces made from a resilient, deformable material.
It is also desirable that the mouthpiece provides a sufficient flow rate of fluid from the reservoir without undo exertion by the user. To this end, some recent designs have attempted to increase the size of the flow passages by incorporating larger mouth pieces, bigger openings, and improved valve designs. In addition to improving flow rates and ease-of-use, mouthpieces have been developed to reduce the likelihood of leakage when in a “standby” or ready-to-use position.
However, such known mouthpieces tend to have certain disadvantages. For example, efforts to optimize desirable characteristics such as ease-of-use, improved flow rates, and reduced leaking has proven difficult, as these characteristics tend to oppose each other. Thus, for example, while ease-of-use is improved by having decreased mouthpiece thickness, this can result in reduced flow rate due to pinching of the valve. Such known mouthpieces also include variations that are formed in a unitary construction, which also tend to have certain disadvantages, including difficulty in cleaning due to their ‘blind’ corners and small sizes.
Cleaning has become a more desirable issue for many hydration system users to consider, as the typical user's desire for continuous hydration with liquids that contain dissolved salts or sugars has increased. However, the use of a liquid other than water may, in many of such known systems and in the unitary mouthpiece, cause the system to become contaminated due to trapped residue and accumulation of bacteria.
Previous attempts to address the cleaning problems have tended to provide mouthpieces that are an assemblage of two or more parts. Such mouthpieces tend to be somewhat easier to clean, but usually suffer from any one of more of the following deficiencies: inadequate flow rates, leakage, or difficult to activate by a user's mouth.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a personal hydration system that is easier to clean and maintain, and that is less expensive to construct than current bag hydration system devices. It would also be desirable to provide a fluid delivery system that is positionable for a user in a hands-free configuration and that does not require retention in a user's mouth. It would also be desirable to provide a personal hydration system that provides a mouthpiece that reduces leakage, is easily activated, can be easily cleaned and provides sufficient flow rates for the user. It would be further desirable to provide a personal hydration device adapted for convenient use with fluids other than water, and that provides sufficient and controllable quantities of fluid to individuals that are exerting themselves.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a personal hydration system having any one or more of these or other advantageous features.